“Naare bathong gatwe di mutual friends di diriwa jang. I have been searching all over ga ke bone gope,” reads one post on facebook.
Following a couple of faux pas in the past year and subsequently de-activating my accounts on social networks, I thought it would be fitting to recommend a few tips that may save you from any future gaffes and help you maintain friendships.
I don’t know about you but I have had to let go of some friends because of the stuff they post on the networks. I have compiled a few ‘New Year’s social-network resolutions’ you may want to adopt. No bragging about relationships: It is a wonderful thing to fall head-over-heels in love and we all want the whole world to share in on our experience.
“Write your name across my heart I want the world to know that I am yours forever And I’ll wear it like a shining star Write your name across my heart,” so goes Kenny Rogers in his classic ‘Write your name’. Well, there is nothing wrong with telling the world you are in love which is why they have the relationship status icon. Just a click and ta da!!! We all know you are involved. Just don’t rub our noses in it with constant posts about you and your better half. Relationships are very unpredictable, one minute you cannot imagine life without your partner, and the next you cannot imagine it with them. So, just as we would not expect you to tell us when things are not so rosy anymore, keep it to yourself when they are.
Posting about trivial stuff: Unless you are asking for advice, do not tell us about your stomach cramps, headache or hangover. We don’t need to know how much you hate your boss and vise versa; don’t tell us, tell them. We do not care about what you are having for lunch. And if you want to ‘check-in’ and let us know where you are, do not limit it to fancy hotels/resorts and restaurants; the shabby places also deserve a mention. And some posts are just simply stupid .How about this coming from a grown up, “Why can’t women drive? Because there is no road from the kitchen to the bedroom.” Leave stupid brain teasers to primary school pupils. And stop passing popular clich├®d jokes as if they are your own.
Selfies: Changing your profile picture or sharing your photos more often than President Khama gets to grace the cover of Daily News is a definite turn off. You may see it as a sign of confidence on your looks but to the rest of us it screams ‘insecurity’. It appears as if you are looking for some form of validation.
Baby pictures: ideally, all babies are supposed to be cute and there’s hardly anything more adorable than the sight of a beautiful little tot. But realistically, not all babies are cute and cuddly. In fact, some baby pictures should be used to promote contraception with a caption that goes “Is this what you want”. So please, keep some of those baby pictures to yourselves.
Granted, incredible scenes of stupidity are all in a day’s work for most of us. But now with social networks, stupid has finally found a voice and a platform. We all get to know about the ridiculous idiosyncrasies that take place on everyone’s head. Now everyone has a voice and the result is utter torture for the rest of us. Of course we are all guilty of some of the stuff mentioned above, but if we can be a little more reasonable and smart about the things we post the social networking sites could turn out to be a little more interesting and bearable. My advice; do not post because you want to say something, post because you have something to say. Compliments of the new year.
